A battery that lasts 50% longer is finally in production
Solid-state batteries have long been elusive, but a firm that supplied cells to the Defense Department could be first to get them into consumer electronics.
It’s an unlikely technology, developed in an unlikely place, at an unlikely time.
Ion Storage Systems’ novel solid-state batteries were inspired by hydrogen fuel-cell technology. The company’s high-energy-density batteries are now in production in a factory in Beltsville, Md. And though the U.S. is pulling back on investments in many energy technologies, a key backer is the Energy Department.
In other words, in an emerging battery category that could revolutionize electronics, Ion is one to watch.
Solid-state batteries—which trade the gooey center of conventional lithium-ion batteries for a solid core—have the potential to improve smartphones and EVs alike. Ion’s unusual approach could yield power cells that last 50% longer, charge significantly faster, and have a near-zero chance of catching fire when damaged.
Then again, that’s long been the promise in a field notorious for dashing the hopes of both startups and established giants. Despite decades of trying to make solid-state batteries commercially viable, we still haven’t seen any outside of niche applications. Automakers have announced partnerships with solid-state battery makers, yet none have moved beyond testing.
Investors have been so disappointed that global venture-capital investment in such companies is on track to be at its lowest level since 2017, according to data from research firm PitchBook.
These are reasons to doubt Ion will succeed. Yet on a recent visit to the company’s pilot factory in Maryland, what I saw convinced me—as well as investors including Toyota Ventures and the Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy—that the company has a chance. If Ion realizes its potential, it could allow the U.S. and its allies to leapfrog China’s battery giants in the race to electrify all our transportation and industrial systems.
The company recently began shipping finished cells to potential customers, who are testing them. This includes the Department of Defense, which found in early trials that the cells held up, as well as electronics makers that aren’t ready to go on the record. The company earned an ARPA-E scale-up grant of $20 million because it showed momentum in making and shipping products, the initial necessary step in driving down costs.
If you’ve heard of solid-state batteries before, it’s because more or less everyone is working on them. More than a dozen startups are in some phase of development, and over the past decade, at least as many have died trying. All the big automakers are testing, researching or investing in this tech. Both China and the U.S. see the development of these batteries as strategically important. Their dual promise of maximum energy density and broad battery-chemistry compatibility is a siren song none can resist.
But here’s the problem: Standard solid-state batteries expand and contract as they charge and discharge, which can fracture the cell and render it useless.
To contain the “breathing" movement, companies engineer springs and metal plates inside their solid-state battery packs. This adds weight and volume, negating the energy-density advantage. The expanding and contracting also make it impossible to incorporate early solid-state batteries into consumer electronics. And it hasn’t helped that solid-state batteries previously required an entirely different kind of manufacturing than traditional batteries.
In 2013, Eric Wachsman, a materials scientist at the University of Maryland, turned one of his Ph.D. students loose on the problem. Wachsman never cared much for batteries, having focused on their promising competitor, hydrogen fuel cells.
Together, he and his student, Greg Hitz, discovered the possibility of incorporating into lithium-ion batteries the same porous, rigid, ceramic substrates that are essential to making fuel cells.
Instead of the complicated layer-cake inside typical lithium-ion batteries (graphite, a liquid electrolyte, a plastic separator, more electrolyte, a layer of metal alloys) there are just three: lithium metal, this ceramic, and the usual metallic alloy.
The microscopic holes in the ceramic serve to buffer the expansion and contraction of the lithium as it moves through the battery. That’s a big deal: It means Ion’s cells can be encased in soft foil pouches, just like conventional lithium-ion batteries.
Making the key ceramic layer of Ion’s batteries is tricky, requiring clean, controlled environments akin to chip factories. But once produced, the rest of the process is mostly the same as making normal batteries. This ease of manufacturing is what lured Ion’s new chief executive, Jorge Schneider, after stints at General Motors and a company that sells lithium to the battery industry.
“Here is a revolutionary technology, without the capital intensity of putting together a Gigafactory to make it work," says Schneider, about his motivation to come aboard.
This should allow Ion to partner with big battery makers and use their existing facilities. Hitz won’t say which, but giants like LG, Panasonic and Samsung would all be logical partners.
Ion’s current, small-scale manufacturing is the first step. It has to convince early-adopter customers that its near-term higher production costs are justified by the increased energy density of its cells—up to 50% better than the best conventional lithium-ion batteries.
Even “customer" is a loose term: The companies are accepting test batches of Ion’s solid-state batteries. Ion wouldn’t share their names, but Wachsman puckishly acknowledged that it’s “every consumer electronics company you can think of."
On one table at its factory, a smartwatch and wireless earbuds had been disassembled to show how small the cells inside them were—perfect first applications for this tech. The Defense Department tested Ion’s batteries as a way to lighten the load that soldiers must carry.
Jonathan Geurkink, senior emerging-tech analyst at PitchBook, says it’ll be easier to gauge success in the solid-state battery business once a maker begins shipping products at volume.
Once reliable, economically viable solid-state batteries do arrive, their value will go beyond making our cars drive farther and our phones last longer. Their energy densities will enable the electrification of heavy equipment such as airplanes and long-haul trucks, as well as futuristic gadgets like all-day smart glasses.
As my tour of Ion’s factory wound down, I asked Schneider what would stop Chinese companies from getting Ion’s secret sauce. For decades, China has used its partnerships to learn the secrets of American battery makers and other tech innovators. He says Ion isn’t making any deals with Chinese battery companies, and it probably never will.
Standing before a set of blueprints that would enable Ion technology to be incorporated into existing battery factories, he says there are plenty of other manufacturers, from countries allied with the U.S., that are eager to work with his company.
Write to Christopher Mims at christopher.mims@wsj.com
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